Angry youths consisting mostly of commercial motorcyclists, also known as okada riders have burnt down the Igboukwu police station in Aguata LGA over the shooting of one of their members by a policeman.
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It was gathered that some police officers on night duty on Tuesday had impounded motorcycles belonging to commercial operators for violating the law in the state which restricts them from operating after 9pm.
The okada operators mobilized their members to protest against the impounding of their motorcycles, but an altercation between them and the police led to a shooting.
“Though we did not immediately ascertain if the young man died, but immediately the shooting happened, the youths mobilized to their police station and burnt it down,” a source said.
The state police public relations officer, SP Haruna Mohammed confirmed that the station was burnt, but failed to say if the youth died after he was shot. He attributed the shooting to accidental discharge.
He said, “There was an altercation between police operatives and motorcycle riders over some impounded motorcycles as a result of the recent restriction on movement of motorcycles beyond 9:pm in the state. The situation degenerated into a chaos which led to an accidental discharge that hit one motorcycle rider and burning of Igboukwu police station by irate youth.”
He stated that the Commissioner of Police CP John Abang is deeply saddened by the unfortunate incident and has ordered for detention of the policemen involved and full scale investigation into the matter.
He added that the CP has appealed for calm and also assured the public that justice would be done in the case and the outcome of Police investigation shall be made public in due course.
